11/06/2025
Daughter sentenced to life for orchestrating father’s murder
The Polokwane High Court has sentenced 28-year-old Mologadi Magdeline Mehlape to life imprisonment after she pleaded guilty to the cold-blooded murder of her father, Dr Malekutu Johannes Mehlape, a senior official in the Limpopo Department of Education.
Dr Mehlape was gunned down in his Mankweng home on 28 December 2023. The court found that his daughter had conspired to kill him, influenced by claims from a traditional healer that her father had used “muthi” to cause her mother’s death.
In a detailed confession, Mehlape admitted to hiring a contract killer for R200,000, enlisting the help of several relatives. On the night of the murder, she unlocked the home’s gate and door, allowing the assailants to ambush her father in his bedroom. He was shot multiple times and robbed of valuables, including his cellphone.
She was convicted of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances under the Criminal Procedure Act and received a life sentence for murder and 15 years for robbery set to run concurrently.
Four co-accused, Tshepo Gabriel Ranoto, Hlologelo Klaas Mogotlane, Mahlodi Melida Mathole, and Michael Sello Molongoane will face trial separately in June 2025.
During sentencing, Mehlape expressed remorse, citing her role as a mother and longstanding conflict with her father. However, the State dismissed her apology as insincere, calling the crime “gruesome and heartless.”
